Reflect some of the ways that you want to assess your students, i.e. monitor their level of understanding what you're teaching.
I will assess my students in a variety of ways to monitor their understanding. This week I mostly monitored classwork and participation during discussions and group work. During a video, I provided them with questions to not only make sure they were paying attention, but to have them critically think about the subject being presented. Afterward, we discussed the questions and I made sure I called on different people to allow everyone the chance to share their answers. We were reviewing fossils and the geological timeline, so our discussion was also a good way to address misconceptions, which I had to do. While working in groups, I walked around the room spending equal time at all the groups to answer any questions and monitor participation by all group members. As they got settled into the activity, I then began asking questions to different group members to make sure everyone understood the material and activity. Being able to talk to all of my students was very beneficial because I was able to individually assess where everyone was, see where the class was as a whole, and get to know my students better. Aside from monitoring understanding in group work, I will monitor individual understanding through end of class questions, homework assignments and other summative assessment. To make sure my students' understanding is progressing through the unit, I will use summative assessment through quizzes and tests throughout the unit.
Describe your grading policy, i.e. how you will assign scores to represent performance. Explain why you are choosing to use this method. If you are continuing your CT's grading policy, explain what you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach.
I will be using the grading policies set at the beginning of the school year by my CTs with both of my classes. In Bio, homework/classwork/preparation counts for 35%, labs/quizzes count for 35%, and tests/projects count for 30% of their quarter grade. Each quarter is worth 20% of their final grade, with the midterm and final exam each worth 10% of the final grade. In Earth Science, class participation/homework is 40% and assessments are worth 60% of their quarterly grade. Assessments include tests, quizzes, science fair projects, lab reports, and projects. The strengths of using this approach is that my students are already familiar with this method of grading and it would seem unfair to change it on them for the second half of the year. My CTs also want to keep the grading consistent for the students, and also because parents are able to see grades and changing the grading policy would confuse both students and parents alike. Weaknesses of this approach are that my students don't ever seem to know their grades. Since this past week was the first week in the new quarter, I witnessed the distribution of grades for the mid year and many students were surprised at their grade and were not sure why they got the grade they did. When I asked about the students' confusion and apathy towards their grades, my CTs said that they all have access to their grades online and it is easy for them to see how they're doing through the iParent program if they want to know how they are doing.
I will assess my students in a variety of ways to monitor their understanding. This week I mostly monitored classwork and participation during discussions and group work. During a video, I provided them with questions to not only make sure they were paying attention, but to have them critically think about the subject being presented. Afterward, we discussed the questions and I made sure I called on different people to allow everyone the chance to share their answers. We were reviewing fossils and the geological timeline, so our discussion was also a good way to address misconceptions, which I had to do. While working in groups, I walked around the room spending equal time at all the groups to answer any questions and monitor participation by all group members. As they got settled into the activity, I then began asking questions to different group members to make sure everyone understood the material and activity. Being able to talk to all of my students was very beneficial because I was able to individually assess where everyone was, see where the class was as a whole, and get to know my students better. Aside from monitoring understanding in group work, I will monitor individual understanding through end of class questions, homework assignments and other summative assessment. To make sure my students' understanding is progressing through the unit, I will use summative assessment through quizzes and tests throughout the unit.Reflect some of the ways that you want to assess your students, i.e. monitor their level of understanding what you're teaching.
I will be using the grading policies set at the beginning of the school year by my CTs with both of my classes. In Bio, homework/classwork/preparation counts for 35%, labs/quizzes count for 35%, and tests/projects count for 30% of their quarter grade. Each quarter is worth 20% of their final grade, with the midterm and final exam each worth 10% of the final grade. In Earth Science, class participation/homework is 40% and assessments are worth 60% of their quarterly grade. Assessments include tests, quizzes, science fair projects, lab reports, and projects. The strengths of using this approach is that my students are already familiar with this method of grading and it would seem unfair to change it on them for the second half of the year. My CTs also want to keep the grading consistent for the students, and also because parents are able to see grades and changing the grading policy would confuse both students and parents alike. Weaknesses of this approach are that my students don't ever seem to know their grades. Since this past week was the first week in the new quarter, I witnessed the distribution of grades for the mid year and many students were surprised at their grade and were not sure why they got the grade they did. When I asked about the students' confusion and apathy towards their grades, my CTs said that they all have access to their grades online and it is easy for them to see how they're doing through the iParent program if they want to know how they are doing.Describe your grading policy, i.e. how you will assign scores to represent performance. Explain why you are choosing to use this method. If you are continuing your CT's grading policy, explain what you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach.